AFI Movie of the Year
Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis) and Best Adapted Screenplay

"A stunning debut." –Variety

"Benh Zeitlin's directorial debut could serve as a poster child for everything American independent cinema aspires to be but so seldom is." –Hollywood Reporter

"It's undoubtedly something extraordinary: like a live-action Miyazaki film, with DAYS OF HEAVEN narration, set in a dirt-poor community at an unspecified time of crisis." –A.V. Club

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl (newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis) exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.